Good morning, City Desk readers (both insured and uninsured), and welcome to our muggiest Freedom Friday yet! Bad ideas thrive on attention, and the Henry Louis Gates Jr. story is getting a ton of it. According to the arrest report, which Gates has said contains "fabrications," the arresting officer asked Gates to come outside and for his ID and Gates initially refused to cooperate. He was then able to prove himself the resident of the home and was instead arrested for being belligerent.

In essence, Gates was arrested for saying that he felt violated and oppressed on his own property. And President Barack Obama was right: The Cambridge police did "act stupidly." The arresting officer, Sergeant Jim Crowley, claims “there was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother,” and yet neither charge would hold up even as a ticketable offense.

But for the record, finding yourself in handcuffs after arguing with a police officer isn't something that just happens to blacks and Latinos. Cops everywhere are always on the lookout for opportunities to assert their authority, and, as in Gates' case, they'll gladly misinterpret public safety laws in order to show a civilian who's the boss.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Do You Feel Safer?" »

Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to a balmy addition of Freedom Friday. Last week I wrote that police in Mississippi arrested Pete Eyre, Adam Mueller, and Jason Talley of the Motorhome Diaries for filming a traffic stop. Thanks to the support of many liberty-minded folks the country over, the boys received $2,580 in bail donations and spent $1,487. Guess what they're doing with the rest? Sending it back, via Paypal, to the people who gave it to them. (Take note Timothy Geithner, you theiving sumbitch.)

Don't Ask, Don't Tell and a teensy bit more about Maureen Dowd, after the jump.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Don’t Ask About Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" »

Good morning City Desk readers, and happy Freedom Friday. Before we get started, I'd remind you all that John Pinette performs this weekend at the DC Improv, Cool Papa's Party run for just one more week at MetroStage, and David Plotz--former Washington City Paper man and current editor in chief of Slate--reads from and signs copies of Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible at Politics & Prose on Saturday. The rest of the week is equally awesome. Now for some news:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: The Power of Rush" »

Good morning, City Desk readers. Did y'all enjoy your average day? Check out our average day tag to read yesterday's reporting experiment in full. Now for Freedom Friday:

• George Mason University's economics department (known for its unquantifiable love of freedom) is losing the very smart Peter T. Leeson to the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago, where he'll join the likes of Steve Levitt and Kevin Murphy. Leeson is the author of the sure-to-be-funny  Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. [H/t to Tom at Fr33 Agents]

• Read More "Our Morning Round-Up: The Day After Average Day" »

Good morning, City Desk readers. It's Libertarian Friday, are you ready to rage against the system? Great! Here's some news:

• Culture11, the conservative/libertarian Web magazine started by Conor Friedersdorf, Peter Suderman, Joe Carter, David Kuo, and James Poulos and based in Arlington, laid off its entire staff on Wednesday. According to Kuo: "We raised a certain amount of money last year predicated on the assumption we would raise more money...Then the fall’s fall occurred and we stretched money as long and far as we could without incurring any debts. With no new money in the door the board decided the most prudent thing to do was suspend business operations." Andrew Sullivan's eulogy for the magazine is especially touching.

Read More "Our Morning Round-Up: Culture11 Bites the Dust" »